Don't buy another water treatment plant. Subscribe to a zero-discharge one.
Your mine WTP is aging, the upgrade quote is a capital line nobody wants to sign, and either way you inherit decades of sludge handling and lifecycle opex. Desalus funds, builds, owns and operates a zero-liquid-discharge plant as a service at 5,000–50,000 mg/L TDS — 99%+ recovery, no brine, no sludge — that replaces or upgrades what you run today. You outlay no capital and simply buy back clean water at an attractive rate per thousand gallons; the recovered salts and metals become farm-grade fertilizer Desalus markets, which keeps your water rate low.
Your WTP only buys compliance — and it keeps charging you for it.
An aging plant under-performs as feed chemistry drifts and discharge limits tighten. Replacing it is a multi-year capital project; upgrading it bolts more RO and clarifier stages onto a process that still rejects brine and produces sludge. Either path leaves you owning steel, operating it for decades, and trucking the residuals — with nothing to show for it but a permit number.
- Capex you can't justify — a new or upgraded WTP is a large, lumpy capital outlay that competes with production spend and depreciates against a single deliverable: staying legal.
- Sludge and brine never leave — clarification and membrane rejects become a residual stream you dewater, pond, truck and permit for the life of the plant.
- Opex compounds quietly — power, chemicals, membrane swaps, labour and disposal stack up year over year, and a compliance-only plant returns none of it.
What owning and running a WTP really costs
A conventional plant is a cost centre for its entire life. Desalus funds and runs the plant as a service, so you simply buy clean water at an attractive rate per thousand gallons.
Stop owning a plant. Start consuming a result.
Desalus is a complete water-treatment plant delivered as an engineered, operated service — sized to your feed and flow, recovering nearly all the water and converting the dissolved load into product instead of residue.
99%+ recovery, zero brine
The plant returns almost all the feed as clean water and eliminates the reject stream entirely. No brine pond, no sludge cake, no disposal contract.
Lower water cost, zero capital
No plant to fund, build, depreciate or run. You pay only for clean water delivered, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons that beats your current all-in cost — and the recovered farm-grade fertilizer Desalus sells is what keeps that rate low.
Compliance, de-risked
Zero-liquid-discharge means no discharge to permit and no residual stream to defend. Desalus owns the performance obligation, not your team.
Built for 5k–50k mg/L
Engineered for the high-TDS, variable-chemistry feed where legacy plants and RO upgrades lose recovery and pile up reject.
Water back into the circuit
Recovered clean water returns to process, dust suppression or supply — cutting raw-water draw and the load on your existing infrastructure.
Replace or upgrade, no rebuild
Drop the service in alongside or in place of your current WTP — retrofit the weak stages or retire the plant entirely, on your timeline.
Built for the feed where conventional WTPs run out of headroom
From blended process water to concentrated pit and pond streams, the Desalus plant is designed for 5,000–50,000 mg/L total dissolved solids — exactly the band where clarifier-and-RO plants drop recovery and grow their reject.
The highlighted band is the Desalus sweet spot — where an upgrade-or-replace decision is hardest to win on a conventional plant.
Aging WTP vs. RO upgrade vs. Desalus as a service
Three responses to the same plant decision — only one returns more than compliance.
| Outcome | Desalus | Keep aging WTP | RO / clarifier upgrade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up-front capital | None — opex model | Deferred — rising failure risk | Large capex outlay |
| Water recovery | 99%+ | Falling with plant age | Partial — high reject |
| Residual waste stream | None | Sludge + brine | Brine reject |
| Lifecycle opex | Predictable fee | High & rising | High |
| Capital you outlay | None — Desalus owns & operates | You fund & rebuild | You fund & build |
| What you pay for | Clean water, per 1,000 gal | Ownership + disposal, forever | Power + disposal |
| Your all-in water cost | Lowest & predictable | Highest | High |
From plant assessment to operating service in four steps.
It starts with your numbers. Send Desalus a full-panel feed analysis, flow data and what your current WTP costs to run, and you'll get a site-specific model of recovery, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons, and the capital and disposal costs you avoid by switching to a plant-as-a-service.
Start with a plant assessmentShare feed and plant data
Send your full-panel chemistry — TDS, sulfate, metals — flow profile and current WTP opex through the Desalus contact form. The fuller the picture, the sharper the model.
Get a capex-vs-opex model
Desalus quantifies recovery, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons, and the capital and disposal costs you avoid versus running or rebuilding your own plant.
Deploy the plant as a service
KNeW Process, Zix-Zak ion exchange and No-Briner systems are configured and operated around your feed — alongside, or in place of, your existing WTP.
Buy back clean water, waste-free
You purchase clean water at your agreed rate per thousand gallons and return it to the circuit. Brine and sludge never exist, and the recovered salts and metals become fertilizer Desalus markets — which is how your water price stays low.
Lift profit. Shed the capex. Retire the waste stream.
The award-winning systems behind the Desalus service replace the plant you'd otherwise own — turning your hardest feed water into reliable, affordable clean water instead of residual cost.
What plant engineers ask first
Can Desalus replace our existing water treatment plant outright?
Yes. Desalus delivers a complete zero-liquid-discharge plant as a service, sized to your feed and flow. It can run in place of an aging WTP or alongside it during transition, recovering 99%+ of the water and producing farm-grade fertilizer from the dissolved load — so you can retire or retrofit the old plant on your own schedule.
How does the Desalus model work — what do I actually pay?
Desalus capitalizes, builds, owns, operates and maintains the plant. There's nothing for you to fund, build, depreciate or run — you simply buy the clean water it produces, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons. Because Desalus recovers and sells the resulting farm-grade fertilizer, we can price your water below conventional treat-and-dispose alternatives while leaving zero waste. The fertilizer revenue is Desalus'; your benefit is cheaper water, zero capex and no liability.
What happens to the sludge and brine our current plant produces?
They stop existing. Instead of clarifier sludge and membrane brine, the dissolved salts and metals are recovered as farm-grade fertilizer and 99%+ of the water is returned clean. With no residual stream, there's no dewatering, ponding, trucking or disposal permit to manage — true zero-liquid-discharge.
How do I compare it against rebuilding or upgrading our plant?
Send a full-panel feed analysis, your flow volumes and what the current WTP costs to run through the contact form on desalus.com. You'll receive a site-specific capex-vs-opex model — recovery, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons, and the capital and disposal costs you avoid — before any commitment.
See what a plant-as-a-service does to your bottom line.
Send Desalus a full-panel feed analysis, flow data and your current WTP operating cost, and get site-specific insight into the recovery, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons, and the capital and disposal costs you'd avoid by replacing or upgrading the plant you run today.
No obligation. The assessment drives a site-specific capex-vs-opex model of recovery, your water rate per thousand gallons, and the costs you avoid.
- Quantified water recovery for your exact feed chemistry
- Your attractive clean-water rate per thousand gallons
- Capex avoided and lifecycle opex replaced by a fixed fee
- Zero capital outlay — Desalus funds, builds & operates it all